Rainey Bennett, Watercolorist, Teacher

Rainey Bennett, 91, a renowned Chicago watercolorist and art teacher who was also a successful children's book author, died Friday in his Lincoln Park home.

Mr. Bennett's works have been on display in a number of prestigious institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Brooklyn Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.

A native of Marion, Ind., Mr. Bennett played with jazz bands in and around Chicago in the 1920s, but was continually drawn to art. He graduated from the University of Chicago and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and with the Art Students League of New York.

After a small, one-man show in Chicago, he migrated to New York and did murals for post offices, schools, restaurants and office buildings in the 1930s. In 1939, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and Nelson Rockefeller commissioned Mr. Bennett to paint a series of watercolors of Venezuela.

The series traveled for two years as a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and Rockefeller bought 24 of the 36 paintings. In 1949, Rockefeller then commissioned Mr. Bennett to paint a series of pictures of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Bennett began teaching at the Art Institute. Though he was represented by an art gallery in Chicago, he had an unusual one-man exhibition that traveled across the country in one day--beginning in New York, moving on to Chicago and San Francisco and finally to Carmel, Calif. The whirlwind exhibition of his watercolors was later featured in Life magazine.

"He was thrilled but exhausted," said his daughter, Pamela Butterfield. "(In pictures), he looks like he was ready to tip over."

Despite his talent, Mr. Bennett never relied on painting to make a living. In Chicago, he worked as a freelance book illustrator and had a longtime association with Scott Foresman publishers, his daughter said. He was also known for his Christmas newspaper ads for Marshall Field's.

In the 1960s, Mr. Bennett illustrated and wrote a humorous children's book, "The Secret Hiding Place," about a little hippo who goes exploring in search of a secret hiding place. "Rainey Bennett, gifted Chicago artist, has performed a near miracle in this beguiling story," the Tribune's review of the book stated. "He has transformed the homely hippo into a captivating creature who will win all hearts."

Mr. Bennett's watercolors were described as lyrical and mildly abstract, and he easily won over fans, said Chicago-area artist Martyl Langsdorf.

"He was a great watercolorist," Langsdorf said. "He knew how to manipulate watercolor in a beautiful way, and he was terribly imaginative."

Mr. Bennett also applied much of his talent toward entertaining friends and relatives. He did portraits of his children, enjoyed crafting Christmas cards for friends and sometimes surprised colleagues with special works designed personally for them.

Mr. Bennett's wife, Ann, died in 1975. In addition to his daughter Pamela, he is survived by another daughter, Renee Bennett; a son, Anthony; four grandchildren; and a companion, Alida Marsh Smith.